


This is how they lose

by icantbelieveiamdoingthis



Category: Figure Skating RPF
Genre: Angst, F/M, Not A Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-08
Updated: 2019-08-08
Packaged: 2020-08-12 22:50:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20163925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icantbelieveiamdoingthis/pseuds/icantbelieveiamdoingthis
Summary: this plot has been bugging me for weeks.not a fix -it. all the angst. and a little bit of moving on.





	This is how they lose

**Author's Note:**

> i am italian, there might be mistakes. not bate-ed.

**How she loses him**

She loses him all at once, with a resounding slamming of the door.

With an ultimatum, that he might have known he had no right to make, especially in lieu of his recent indiscretion. And to her refusal, he had started a temper tantrum of epic proportion, typical of the 2014-2015 Scott.  
She loses him with a resounding door slamming, not because he walked out on her, again. She should be surprised, she supposed, but she isn’t. She is just disappointed.  
She waits for him, for ten minutes, half an hour, an hour. No text no nothing. And that is how she loses him because, by nightfall, he is still nowhere to be found, but whispers say that he has been seen with the same Russian skater.  
So she takes a deep breath, and she makes the decision.  
She is done.  
What happens after, is exactly what she thought was going to happen. Because he is who he is, and there’s no changing him and she had made peace with it. Expect the worst and you’ll never be disappointed, she guessed. So nothing that happens from November 2018 onward is unexpected to her.  
The fans go batshit-crazy.

Half of his family knows that this is going downhill fast, but lets him do what he wants. The other half enjoy the parties, Florida, and maga jokes on deportation and are possibly Trump supporters.

Shudders.

Tessa is silent on it all, because, why should she put her head on the public media block. She doesn’t interfere, she doesn’t defend him, not again, not ever and maybe she sleeps better for it.

If she’s honest, she expected the engagement, after the “accidental impregnation”. She’s a little bit disappointed by it, she says sarcastically to her sister one morning during coffee. They laugh.

Her family, her mom, Jordan, even her dad, all breathe a sigh of relief. Dodged a bullet on that one. But most of all, if she had just listened to her grandma, she would have saved herself a lot of heartbreak. He is no good for you Tessa, she used to say. He looks like the handsome brother of the Penguin and it was no compliment.  
Her mom had cautioned her against a relationship with Scott and she had never steered her wrong, He runs too hot and cold for her liking, and to be frank for Tessa’s liking as well.

So how that is how she loses him.it is not painful. It’s just an inevitability that she’s content with. After everything is said and done, she feels free.

* * *

  
**How he loses her**

He loses her slowly but surely. Inexorably when he is not looking.  
Expecting her to be there when he deigns himself to feel her comforting presence. And he does, and she is there through the first tour.  
Months pass, Florida is a thing, he lives with _her_, loves _her_, proposes and is engaged to_ her_, and still, Tess seems to be still there. Seems is a keyword.  
What he doesn’t realize is the clenching of the jaw or the fake smile plastered on her face.

  
He thinks he is funny.

  
Nobody else but his family thinks he is.

  
And he gets married in a big hoopla, and she is not there. A conflicting scheduled work thing stops her from being there.  
What he doesn’t know is that the mistake in schedule was done accidentally on purpose.  
What he doesn't know is that on balance Tessa would rather stick her head in the oven rather than spend more time than necessary in the company of _their_ friends.  
They get married, before the RTR tour begins, on the beach in Florida surrounded by maga friends and family.

Internet explodes, and yes that funny announcement comes to bite them in the ass.

This time Tess is nowhere to be found. Just a congratulatory text on the day and that’s it, until the tour.

  
The RTR doesn’t go well. Or not as well as their first one, and he wonders why.  
Tessa knows why, but she keeps her mouth shut.  
After one of the last shows, is met by her. They organize a dinner with the cast. Tess politely declines. She has a video conference in an hour, and she has to be back at her bus in time for it.  
She bids them goodbye, paying her, them, no mind at all.  
Her bus. This should have been a glaring sign for him. She had her own private bus, courtesy of her dad. Peace and quiet to finish her thesis and work emails. Soft jazz and a jacuzzi to soothe her limbs, apparently.  
He was not invited to see the inside of it.  
He thinks this is just a funk that Tessa is going through. He thinks everything will go back to normal with time.  
What he doesn't know what they don’t realize, except for maybe Elvis, is that this is the new normal. This is the new and improved Tessa. And he ignored it.

After the end of the tour, he doesn’t see or hear from her again. Ever. A year goes by, then another. They are trying to have a child to no avail, and the stress of it all is getting to them, so he calls her.

The number doesn’t exist.

He is in shock. He stares at his phone for a while, and then decide that maybe he dialed the wrong number, so he calls her again. Still, the number doesn’t exist.  
He is panicking now. That never happened before. He calls home, and his mom answers, and after a few formalities, he asks her about Tessa. Alma admits that they hadn’t seen Tessa since their last show, but that she knew she was in France. Paris she thinks.  
He blinks. On vacation, he asks.  
Alma tells him that she had moved there for work.

After his phone call to his mom, he does something that he never thought of doing. He goes online. Her twitter account is active and more alive than ever. And so in her Instagram.

Architectural and natures wonders, and culture, books, charities, and events (some of them to do with young athletes, some even skaters). Work staff, and now she takes coffee at a Café near her work building wherever that is.

The only trace of his presence is his initials in her bio. Nothing more, nothing less.

_Skated for twenty-two years with SM._

Four months later, finally they are having a child. She is happy, he still has to wrap his head around that.  
They are having breakfast and watching CTV, when the breaking news, brings him out of the stupor.

World and Olympic champion Tessa Virtue wed in a private ceremony Lord Henry Fergusson III. Details to come.

She had married royalty. She had gotten married and she didn’t even tell him.  
He realized then and there that he had gotten what he wanted, except he didn’t.  
He was now just a chapter in her life. A turned page, never to be revisited again.  
No one is surprised.  
He is.

And that’s how he loses her


End file.
